Established in 2009 Under the Authority of North Carolina General Statute 15A-404

“My view of guns is simple. I hate guns and I cannot imagine why anyone would want to own one. If I had my way, guns for sport would be registered, and all other guns would be banned.”

– Deborah Prothrow-Stith (Dean of Harvard School of Public Health

“Hoplophobia is a mental disturbance characterized by irrational aversion to weapons, as opposed to justified apprehension about those who may wield them.”

– Jeff Cooper

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

– Albert Einstein

“I don’t believe people should to be able to own guns.”

– Barack Obama (during conversation with economist and author John Lott Jr. at the University of Chicago Law School in the 1990s)

“The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.”

– James Earl Jones

“When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”

– Niccolo Machiavelli

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”

– George Washington

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

– Wayne LaPierre

“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That’s ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid for.”

– Clint Smith

“The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at 90MPH, where the speed limit is 25. Your solution is to lower the speed limit to 20.”

– Sam Cohen (inventor of the neutron bomb)

“Know guns, no crime. No guns, know crime.”

– Ralph Lauretano

“I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few politicians.” – George Mason (father of the Bill of Rights and The Virginia Declaration of Rights)

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and passed on … or we will spend our sunset years telling our children’s children what it was like in the United States when men were free.”– Ronald Reagan

“In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need guns. This is not a perfect world.”– Sheriff Ben Johnson, Volusia County, Florida

“To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic.”

– Ted Nugent

“When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”

– Niccolo Machiavelli

“Those who deny me the freedom to carry a firearm with which to protect my family and myself, are as complicit and guilty as the perpetrator should we be harmed or murdered by an act of violence.”

– Charles F. “Chuck” Bearden

“God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”

– Daniel Webster

“That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.”

– George Orwell

“In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need guns. This is not a perfect world.”– Sheriff Ben Johnson, Volusia County, Florida

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

-William Pitt

“When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”– Niccolo Machiavelli

“If I could have banned them all – ‘Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns’ – I would have!”– Diane Feinstein, Democrat U.S. Senator from California

“Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense.”

– John Adams

“The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.”

– Samuel Adams

“Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property…. Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived the use of them.”

– Thomas Paine

“Self-preservation is a paramount law which an individual may find necessary to invoke.”

– Ex Parte Vallandigham, 68 U.S. 243 (1863)

“I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

– George Mason

“The vigilance of Magistrates can never make up for the vigilance of each individual on his own behalf.”

– Jeremy Bentham

“Those without swords can still die upon them.”

– J.R.R. Tolkien

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

– Benjamin Franklin, 1759

“‘Gun Control’ is a job safety program for criminals.”

– Professor John R. Lott

“Remember the first rule of gunfighting … have a gun.”

– Jeff Cooper

“There are no dangerous weapons. There are only dangerous men.”

– Robert A. Heinlein

“I just want you to know that we are working on it. We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

– Barack Obama,speaking to Sarah Brady regarding gun control.

“One cannot legislate the maniacs off the street … these maniacs can only be shut down by an armed citizenry. Indeed bad things can happen in nations where the citizenry is armed, but not as bad as those which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time.”

– Jeff Cooper

“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.”

–William S. Burroughs

“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”

– Richard Henry Lee

“The problem is not the availability of guns, it is the availability of morons.”

– Antonio Meloni

“Though defensive violence will always be ‘a sad necessity’ in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men.”

– St. Augustine

“Keeping and bearing arms is not only a fundamental right; it is a fundamental duty upon which all liberty and sovereignty is based.”

– Donald L. Cline

“Outside of the killings, Washington, DC has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.”

– Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC

“Crime is actually less in places where people own guns. Washington, D.C., is a case in point. It has the strictest gun laws, but who has the highest crime rate in the country? Washington, D.C.”

—Luke Scott

“If you’ve got to resist, you’re chances of being hurt are less the more lethal your weapon. If that were my wife, would I want her to have a .38 Special in her hand? Yes.”

– Dr. Arthur Kellerman (famous gun grabber)

“… arms … discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property…. Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived the use of them.”

– Thomas Paine

“The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world… The first step — in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come — is to teach men to shoot”

—President Theodore Roosevelt From his last message to Congress

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms.”

– James Madison

“If I could have banned them all – ‘Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns’ – I would have!”
– Diane Feinstein, U.S. Senator, Democrat – California

“One cannot legislate the maniacs off the street … these maniacs can only be shut down by an armed citizenry. Indeed bad things can happen in nations where the citizenry is armed, but not as bad as those which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time.”
– Jeff Cooper

“A free people ought to be armed.”
– George Washington

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”
– George Washington

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve more to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
– Thomas Jefferson (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria)

“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“I enclose you a list of the killed, wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since which there has been no event of any consequence … I think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy.”
– Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Giovanni Fabbroni, June 8, 1778

“Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense.”
– John Adams

“To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.”
– George Mason

“I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few politicians.”
– George Mason (father of the Bill of Rights and The Virginia Declaration of Rights)

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.”
– Noah Webster

“The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.”
– Noah Webster

“A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace.”
– James Madison

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms.”
– James Madison

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”
– James Madison

“The ultimate authority resides in the people alone.”
– James Madison

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
– William Pitt

“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”
– Richard Henry Lee

“A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves … and include all men capable of bearing arms.”
– Richard Henry Lee

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
– Patrick Henry

“This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty…. The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”
– St. George Tucker

“… arms … discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property…. Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived the use of them.”
– Thomas Paine

“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
– Samuel Adams

“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”
– Joseph Story

“What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty …. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.”
– Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts

” … for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.”
– Alexander Hamilton

“The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.”